Creation and transfer of non-classical states of motion using Rydberg dressing of atoms in a lattice

TL;DR

This paper proposes a theoretical method to manipulate and transfer non-classical motional states of atoms in a lattice using Rydberg dressing, enabling control over quantum mechanical states with potential experimental realization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scheme to generate and transfer non-classical motional states of atoms via Rydberg dressing, extending control from pairs to atomic chains.

Findings

Rydberg dressing can induce strong coupling of atomic motion.

Intensity modulation enables squeezing and creating non-classical states.

Protocols for transferring quantum correlations along atomic chains.

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the manipulation of the motional states of trapped ground-state atoms using Rydberg dressing via nonresonant laser fields. The forces resulting from Rydberg-state interaction between dressed neighboring atoms in an array of microtraps or an optical lattice can strongly couple their motion. We show that intensity modulation of the dressing field allows to squeeze the relative motion of a pair of atoms and generate non-classical mechanical states. Extending this pairwise scheme to one-dimensional chains provides flexible control over the mechanical degrees of freedom of the whole system. We illustrate our findings with protocols to manipulate all motional degrees of freedom of a pair of atoms and create entangled states. We also present a method to transfer non-classical correlations along an atomic chain of nontrivial length. The long-lived nature of motional states, together with the high tunability of Rydberg dressing, makes our proposal feasible for current experimental setups.